A 41-year-old Berliner was arrested after wax figure of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was beheaded shortly after a new branch of Madame Tussauds opened in Berlin, police said.

He faces charges of causing criminal damage, along with bodily harm after he allegedly pushed away a security guard and a museum official who tried to stop him, Uwe Kozelnik, museum spokesman, said on Saturday.

"He wanted to protest against Hitler's figure being on show," Kozelnik said, adding that the model had been withdrawn from display for repairs.

Kozelnik said the man had been questioned and was expected to be released later.

The museum official suffered a slight leg injury in the scuffle.

The decision to portray the Nazi leader among the 70 most prominent figures in German history has proved controversial in the country.

Museum officials said they were careful not to give the impression that Hitler was in any way a figure to be revered.

He appears in a mock-up of his bunker just before the final defeat at the end of the second world war.

Hitler was positioned behind a table, in an attempt to stop visitors to the museum from damaging the waxwork or posing for photographs with it.

Kohl complaint

Meanwhile, Helmut Kohl, former post-war chancellor, said he would be consulting his lawyer because he had never given permission for his own likeness to be on display at the museum.

Kohl, 78, told the daily Bild, he had been contacted by the management of Madame Tussaud's but had put certain conditions on the way he was to be portrayed.

Museum official Susanne Keller dismissed the complaint.

"The figures are sent from London. They do a good job. I assume that Mr Kohl gave his agreement, that's why he's here," Bild quoted Keller, as saying.